Just sent my mobo off for swapping cos it broke and in preperation for its return, I want to re-paste the CPU.

Firstly, is there any proper way of cleaning the paste off the CPU and heatsink/fan or can I just remove it with the use of a tissue and a plastic knife or blade?

And lastly, are THESE thermal pads any good and will they work on my AMD 64 3000+ CPU?????

Thanks...

Well, thermal compound works on any CPU. The question is how good.

Arctic Silver 5 is the most popular among PC builders. I still have the older one and repaste when I build a PC or clean it.

As for cleaning, use 90%+ isopropyl alcohol from drug stores and a few cotton swabs to remove the old compound. Or "Goof Off" from Home Depot.

Ok and are those thermal pads any good or should I use paste???

Thanks...

Thermal paste wins every time in my opinion.

Regards Howard

Ok i'll get thermal paste instead then, lol.

How thick is the layer I apply?

When I first took the CPU out of the box, the layer of paste wasent even a milimetere thick lol.

After cleaning the old thermal paste off the heatsink and cpu, apply thermal paste to the boss on the cpu about the size of a grain of rice.

Regards Howard

A grain of rice wont be enough to cover the whole area !!!!

I don`t know what cpu you are using but I use an AMD which only has a very small boss.

Only use a very thin layer less is deffinitely more.

Regards Howard

ok thanks for the info.

i'll buy the paste now.

i suggest putting about a little more than a grain of rice and then getting a ziploc baggy and put your finger in it and then smooth out the paste over the proccesor. the oils from your finger might interfere with the paste or the processor itself so the baggy keeps the oils from your finger from messing things up.

Will do, ty for info.

This is how you should apply thermal paste on CPUs that have heat spreaders on top.

If you ask me, a couple of degrees difference in temperatures between thermal pad and paste is hardly noticeable.

That looks like alot.

I thought it should only be a very thin ammount.